Berkeley, CA, September 28 – A 20-year-old man suffered severe injuries after being struck by a car while crossing Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley on Friday night, according to the Berkeley Police Department. Paramedics transported him to a hospital in critical but stable condition. Police said the vehicle was traveling southbound and was driven by a 64-year-old Oakland woman. The department’s Fatal Accident Investigation Team was assigned to investigate because of the severity of the injuries.
Berkeley Pedestrian Critically Injured in Telegraph Avenue Crash
According to the Berkeley Police Department, the collision happened around 10:09 p.m. on September 25, 2026, at Telegraph Avenue and Carleton Street. Police said the pedestrian was crossing Telegraph Avenue when he was hit by a car heading southbound. The driver was identified by police as a 64-year-old woman from Oakland. Officers have not released the name of the injured man.
Paramedics responded to the scene and transported the man to a hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition, according to police. Because of the severity of his injuries, the Berkeley Police Department assigned its Fatal Accident Investigation Team to investigate the collision. Police did not immediately provide additional details about the emergency response.
Berkeley police have not released the name of the injured pedestrian, and no citations or arrests have been announced in connection with the crash, according to the department. Investigators have not said what led to the collision. It remains unclear when the Fatal Accident Investigation Team’s review will conclude or whether further details will be made public.
What California law requires of drivers around pedestrians
Vehicle Code section 21950 requires a driver to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing within any marked crosswalk, or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. Subdivision (b) is the one people misread: a pedestrian may walk or run, and doing either does not forfeit the right of way.
Subdivision (c) puts a separate duty on the driver. A driver approaching a pedestrian in any crosswalk must exercise all due care and reduce the speed of the vehicle. That duty applies whether or not the pedestrian had the right of way, and subdivision (d) preserves it: nothing in the section relieves a driver of the duty to use due care for the safety of any pedestrian in the roadway.
The deadline that applies to a claim like this one
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives two years for an action for injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The same two years covers an injury claim and a death claim; there is no separate, shorter period because someone died.
Who is entitled to bring a claim when someone is killed
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 decides who may bring a wrongful death action. The first group is the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and the issue of deceased children, or, where there is no surviving issue, whoever would take the estate by intestate succession.
A second group may bring the action only if they were financially dependent on the person who died: a putative spouse and their children, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the person who died where the parents are deceased. Parents are in that second group, which is the part families are most often surprised by, because dependency has to be shown rather than assumed.
Talking to someone about it
Culver Legal represents people injured in collisions across California. A conversation about what happened costs nothing, and we work on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we win. If we do not win, we do not pass the case costs on to you either.
Nothing on this page is legal advice about any particular case, and the facts of a reported collision often change as the investigation continues.
